What are the best Capture and Export settings for GoPro to YouTube? (Hero 5 Session Mountain Biking Footage)

Report · Jan 13, 2019

I will make this "short" - I use a GoPro Hero 5 Session to record my Mountain Bike Trail Rides. I have researched a lot and tried many different things. Many. But not all.

Sometimes my videos turn out fine, other times not. What I see on my computer after editing with Premiere Pro is always great. But when I upload to YouTube, the compression is making certain sections pixelated and creating artifacts. I would like to do everything in my power to prevent this.

I would like to know what Resolution and Frames Per Second combo would provide the best quality. The only Preference I would like to keep in mind is the Field of View. I like to use Wide for some things and Linear for others. So I need Capture settings that can do both those things and be in the same Resolution and FPS, otherwise it messes things up when I create a new Project/Sequence and they're different.

I have tried many Export Settings as well and I would love to keep Exporting at the YouTube HD 1080 preset if possible. It's very quick...

I have tried both CBR and VBR 2 Pass and changed the Bit Rate settings various times and what I find is that when I stray from the Preset is that it can take 12 hours to Export a 15 minute video that has hardly any Effects, Colour Grading, or Music. And then it takes about 12 Hours to upload to YouTube as well. When I export at the YouTube HD 1080 Preset, it may take an hour to Export and Hour long video and only an hour to Upload. But when there's a lot of movement, I get pixelation and artifacts and it's becoming unacceptable.

I am so burnt out and anxious over the research and trial and error and would love some help here.

Report · Jan 14, 2019

I'm not familiar enough with the GoPro to suggest those settings.

For export to YouTube, I recommend choosing the QuickTime Format and the Cineform 10 bit YUV Preset. The files are large, but the results are great.

Report · Jan 17, 2019

I decided to try it out and you're correct, the results ARE great... But the file size for a 15 minute video was 66Gs. It took over 48 hours to upload to YouTube. But it DID force YouTube to encode it at VP9 instead of AVC. Which, after much more research has been the problem all along. The videos I was exporting from Premiere Pro always looked this good by YouTube compressed them so much...

Do you know of any other Export Settings that may force VP9 encoding from YouTube that aren't crazy large? 48 Hours for a 15 minute video is crazy and would mean my computer is on ALL the time. Apparently YouTube will encode at VP9 if the the export is better than 2K. I shoot in 2.7 but Premiere Pro only has the 4K or 1080p Export. So I export in 1080p and they use AVC encoding. My GoPro CAN shoot in 4K but the reason I don't use it is because then the Stabilizer (much needed for my bike videos) isn't an option. I'm going to experiment but before I get there, I wonder if it would just be better quality to keep shooting in 2.7 but export in 4K... In this case would I have to create a 4K Sequence to drop my 2.7 videos into?

Report · Jan 17, 2019

If you do a lot of uploading consider getting faster Internet. (I'm fortunate enough to have access to a 1Gb Fiber connection at a reasonable cost.)

Report · Sep 12, 2019

I've got Hero 5 as well, I'm happy with the quality until I upload the video to YouTube - I gave up last year, I've tried increasing the bitrate to 70 Mbps, I've tried 4K, 2K, 1080p, YouTube will always destroy my videos.
I've found your post, got really excited when you said the quality is great with Cineform 10 bit YUV Preset, I've tried it but it still doesn't help... I've even tried Cineform RGB 12-bit but still that doesn't help...

The picture below is before Cineform 10 bit YUV Preset before and after uploading to YouTube:

I was trying to find an official GoPro video that I've seen last year and it looked amazing in 1080p but it seems like all fast moving gopro videos look rubbish now... Maybe YouTube decided to apply higher compression to everything? I wish vimeo was free, they definitely use less compression, like in this video: GoPro: The Atherton's MTB in 4K | HERO7 Black on Vimeo

https://vimeo.com/333136023

Report · Sep 13, 2019

I've got Hero 5 as well, I'm happy with the quality until I upload the video to YouTube - I gave up last year, I've tried increasing the bitrate to 70 Mbps, I've tried 4K, 2K, 1080p, YouTube will always destroy my videos.

I've found your post, got really excited when you said the quality is great with Cineform 10 bit YUV Preset, I've tried it but it still doesn't help... I've even tried Cineform RGB 12-bit but still that doesn't help...

I was trying to find an official GoPro video that I've seen last year and it looked amazing in 1080p but it seems like all fast moving gopro videos look rubbish now... Maybe YouTube decided to apply higher compression to everything? I wish vimeo was free, they definitely use less compression.